Rick Porter

@rickporter

Work: TV business editor at The Hollywood Reporter, proprietor of thedatastream.tv. Not work: Chicagoland resident and enthusiast. Signal: rwp.07

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Rick Porter@rickporter· 1d

Clicked on a link to a twitter post in something I was reading and this came up. The little disembodied hand like it's some ad for a shitty phone game. Just embarrassing

Screenshot from twitter that says
"See all the replies
Continue to X"

with a disembodied hand pointing to the "continue to X" button like it's trying to get me to download a solitaire app

Rick Porter@rickporter· 4d

So @lisamtp.bsky.social and eldest kid like to go antique browsing. On their last couple trips they found lithographs by Alexander Calder and Roy Lichtenstein, so our living room is pretty damn cool right now.

A lithograph of “Merging Curves” by Alexander Calder, flanked by two other paintings (not by him) hanging over a mantel that holds a bunch of enameled plates

A Roy Lichtenstein lithograph, I think it’s just called “Sailboats”

Rick Porter@rickporter· 5d

Port the premise onto the aesthetic of this movie and maybe you've got a stew going.

Poster for the 2000 indie movie "Urbania," with some review quotes up top, a closeup of Derek Futterman's surprised face at left and blurry New York night street scene to the right of that

Rick Porter@rickporter· 13d

Subscribe to The Data Stream to get both well-reasoned analysis of TV and streaming ratings and ridiculous wordplay like this. www.thedatastream.tv?modal=signup

The headline says “Streaming top 10s: ‘Love Island’ in the stream, that is what we watch” with a subhead of “Sorry/not sorry for that headline”

Rick Porter@rickporter· 17d

I finished “The Bear” last night and wrote about a) getting to it kind of late and b) watching it away from the discourse about it. Read and subscribe at The Data Stream. www.thedatastream.tv/p/latecomer-...

So The Bear opening season 3 with an episode-long, very dialogue-light discursion into everything that led up to Carmy losing his shit while locked inside the walk-in at the end of season 2 didn’t strike me as such a bad choice. I was very much aware of the discourse around that storytelling decision, and about the rest of season 3 being a letdown from the first two. It was in the back of my mind as we started watching again.

But — and this might be a function of it only being in the back of my mind, not the front of it — I thought that was an excellent piece of television. The editing of The Bear has been fantastic throughout its run (it won Emmys for picture editing for the first two seasons), but I thought it was exceptional in that episode. It pulled me entirely back into the show’s world.

Rick Porter@rickporter· 27d

Is this bad

Screenshot from the weather app showing air quality index of 500, which is as high as the scale goes

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jul 13

North Shore Sunday: giant bubbles at the botanic garden and Billy Idol with the oldest at Ravinia.

Three rows of large iridescent spheres on the water. These are about 2-3 feet in diameter

Three extremely big stacks of iridescent spheres, big enough for a person to walk under the opening in between the ones on the ground

A crowd of people picnicking and hanging out on the lawn at Ravinia

Billy Idol in the center of this not very good shot of him performing at Ravinia. It was a fun show!

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jul 12

New at The Data Stream: Based on presentation and general vibes, I've been thinking the World Cup is part March Madness, part Olympics. How did that idea hold up when looking at the data? www.thedatastream.tv/p/summer-mad...

I’ve been thinking about what to compare the World Cup to as a TV product, and the best I can come up with is that it’s somewhere between March Madness and the Olympics in terms of structure, presentation and audience size.

This week’s deep dive will have me trying to support that idea with a look at the outsized audience for the tournament, where it stacks up with the two reference points I just mentioned — and some other sports — and what the future holds. All while I watch Norway and England in the quarterfinals as I type.

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jul 9

New at The Data Stream: Emmy nominations by the numbers, including Apple punching above its weight again. Subscribe here for stuff like this in your inbox a few times a week: www.thedatastream.tv/?modal=signup

When it comes to Emmys, though, Apple punches way above its weight. It’s won 62 Emmys since 2020, including 22 last year. One more piece of evidence: Apple’s 87 nominations Wednesday came from only 31 submitted shows (15 of which got nominations). That’s a much higher batting average than other media companies. Take a look:

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jul 8

Jeff Hiller looking like Wemby next to Liza Colon-Zayas as they announce Emmy nominations.

Jeff Hiller is much, much taller than Liza Colon-Zayas

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jul 6

Harry Kane going hoarse in the postgame interview sounds like

Terry Jones as the woman behind the counter in the Monty Python Spam sketch

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 28

Went back in time a couple weeks to see where “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” stack up against network shows. Quite well, is the answer. Subscribe to The Data Stream for more of this kid of thing. www.thedatastream.tv?modal=signup

Other than the two NBA Finals games, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune were the most watched shows of the week, and Family Feud and Judge Judy — which, by the way, has been in reruns for four-plus years — also make the top 10. Jeopardy!, Wheel and Family Feud would likely make the top 10 or 15 shows in just about any week of the year, not just during the summer when network numbers go down some.

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 26

On the bad optics for Netflix with “The Boroughs” being canceled right as independent ratings show it’s a hit. Want more stuff like this? Subscribe to The Data Stream - www.thedatastream.tv?modal=signup

In other words — and again, this is just me speculating — The Boroughs may be a victim of the kind of demographic-driven (or acquisition-driven, or whatever) kind of thinking that felled any number of pre-streaming era network shows that didn’t have enough younger viewers. You know, the kind of thing that streaming promised would become a thing of the past. And so one we have one more data point that streaming is becoming more like traditional TV in all but the delivery method.

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 25

Lol OK dude. This is from an HBO press release for a documentary series about Jay-Z … or excuse me, JAŸ-Z.

*Note: Please ensure that all coverage has the correct spelling of JAŸ-Z (caps, with the umlaut over the “Ÿ”)*

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

A bunch of people at the center, dignitaries and whatnot, got up to do the electric slide while Stevie sang “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.”

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

“Hi, I’m Bruce.”

Bruce Springsteen follows Obama’s speech

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

“To Michelle, she did me wrong. She wouldn’t let me see her speech. She knew she was gonna mess me up, and she did.”

Barack Obama speaking at the opening of his presidential center

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

Having trouble uploading video but this performance of “City of Blinding Lights” was dope.

Bono and The Edge getting ready to do “City of Blinding Lights” at the Obama center opening

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

Michelle Obama is just a tremendous speaker. Watch the video of her speech from the ceremony when you can.

Michelle Obama making a speech at the Obama Center opening as seen from the big screen at the watch party.

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

The Obamas bopping along to Common and John Legend, accompanied by the United Voices of Chicago choir.

The big screen showing Michelle and Barack Obama listening to music

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

Eddie Vedder performed an original song, “Better Believe,” with kids from a nonprofit called Guitars Over Guns.

Eddie Vedder on a big screen, introducing his band from Guitars Over Guns

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

The Midway crowd

A crowd of people mostly in lawn chairs stretching back a ways

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

The Roots are opening things up. From what I can tell there are maybe a couple hundred people at the center and several thousand out here on the Midway Plaisance a few blocks away for a public watch party.

Black Thought of The Roots on a big screen.

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 18

Greetings from Chicago.

At the public watch party for the Obama Center. A big screen saying “welcome to the Obama Presidential Center grand opening ceremony” taken about an hour before the ceremony starts, with some people on the lawn in front of the screen and the center’s main building in the background a couple blocks away

Another view of the Obama Center peeking above the tree line and people in lawn chairs on the lawn

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 17

Name a TV show you're positive no one remembers but you.

Promo pic for the FX show "Lucky" with cast members Craig Robinson, John Corbett, Ever Carradine and Billy Gardell

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 15

So long, plebes.

Spam email "Illuminati invitation"

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Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 14

A preview of tomorrow's Data Stream newsletter. Want the rest in your inbox? Sign up at the link below. www.thedatastream.tv/?modal=signup

I'm also fascinated by shows that are squarely in the middle of their network's ratings table. What does a perfectly average TV show look like, in terms of ratings? It's that exercise I want to get into today.

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 4

🎶 I believe we can make it through the ni-ight …🎶

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 4

I was in the city for a work meeting today. Chicago undefeated

Top floor of the Harold Washington Library

The Chicago River flanked by tall buildings, with a bridge crossing it in the middle middle distance

The Sears/Willis Tower rises above other buildings, looking west on Jackson Blvd

Looking across the river at the Civic Opera Building

Rick Porter@rickporter· Jun 4

New Data Stream out, with last week’s on-air ratings and a little bit about “60 Minutes” including this bit. Subscribe here, and join the folks getting this in their inboxes: www.thedatastream.tv?modal=signup